Optimally, the levels of magnesium and calcium in a human body are in a balanced state. Magnesium functions physiologically in the body to control nerve action, heart activity, neuromuscular transmission, muscular contraction, vascular tone, blood pressure, and peripheral blood flow. Magnesium regulates the entry and release of calcium from cells which is determinative of muscular activity. When cells lack sufficient magnesium to balance calcium, it is harder for cells to relax, resulting in a stressed state. When there is insufficient magnesium in muscle cells, in particular, the calcium may cause the muscle cells to contract, resulting in muscle cramps.
Deficiency of magnesium generally can not only cause muscle cramps, but has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of various clinical imbalances, disorders, and/or harmful conditions, including weakness, fatigue, cardiac arrhythmia, respiratory arrest, increased irritability of the nervous system with tremors, anxiety and panic attacks, asthma, blood clots, bowel disease, cystitis, depression, detoxification, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, hypoglycemia, insomnia, kidney disease, migraines, musculoskeletal conditions, nerve problems, obstetrical and gynecological problems, osteoporosis, Raynaud's syndrome, tooth decay, athetosis, jerking, nystagmus, disorientation, hallucinations, depression, epileptic fits, hypertension, tachycardia, tetany and in extreme cases, even death. Magnesium deficiency can also lead to a disruption of the body's electrolytes, which may be a condition known as hypomagnesemia.
Despite the harmful symptoms of magnesium deficiency, many persons do not receive the recommended daily magnesium requirement-320 mg for women and 400 mg for men. Rather, magnesium intake for the majority of people is apparently between 175 mg and 225 mg per day.
Magnesium deficiency and hypomagnesemia is particularly common among patients in hospitals. Chronic diarrhea, malabsorption, alcoholism, chronic stress, and use of medications such as diuretics may lead to magnesium deficiency. In addition, magnesium deficiency can be the result of a diet lacking magnesium. For example, common nutritional sources of magnesium are green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains-foods that have been increasingly rare in diets consisting of large quantities of processed foods.
Oral magnesium supplements are often absorbed by the body at lower-than-desired rates. This is partly the result of the fact that the magnesium found in such oral supplements must pass through the digestive system before circulating to the rest of the body, and often ends up released from the body prior to circulation—via the kidneys, bowel excretion, and due to not being effectively absorbed by the intestines. Oral magnesium supplements may also result in undesired gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea, mild abdominal cramping, loose stools or diarrhea.
These undesirable symptoms of oral magnesium supplements may occur in some people at low levels of oral magnesium supplementation. The upper limit-defined as the lowest amount of a nutrient given as a supplement that will cause any symptoms—of magnesium supplement is generally 350 mg and lower than the male recommended daily allowance. Thus it is desirable to have non-oral magnesium supplements, which that bypass the problems associated with magnesium passing through the gastro-intestinal tract. Although magnesium may be injected into the body, many prefer a less invasive and more convenient method of delivery.
In addition, prior art transdermal magnesium supplements, for example—those in the form of liquids, oils, and/or gels, may not be attractively convenient methods of application. Rather, such prior art transdermal supplements may be messy, sticky, oily, leave a residue on the skin, rub off on clothes, and require persons to wait for prolonged periods for the supplement to dry or evaporate before being able to place clothing over the treated portions of skin. In addition, regardless of other desirable qualities that a prior art transdermal magnesium supplement might possess, it nevertheless might present certain disadvantages due to real or perceived inconvenience associated with its form as an oil, gel, or other liquid (or pseudo-liquid).
Furthermore, in prior art cream transdermal magnesium supplements, the cream and liquid elements of the prior art composition may lack adequate viscosity, and be therefore more prone to separation, thus making application of the substances less attractive. Moreover, prior art magnesium supplements may be designed to increase the global level of magnesium in a body, rather than focus on alleviating pain in certain localized areas of the body, by providing needed magnesium supplement foremost to those localized areas.